I’ve started a book that is actually about homeschooling this time (the last one wasn’t as much about homeschooling as it was about a mom who homeschools).
And I’m back to work on my novel after more than a month. Reworked the opening and the ending last night and today during naptime. So cool when things just *work* like they did.
What I wanted to get in my opener:
- protagonist/characterization
- villain/characterization
- main conflict introduced
- hint at possible solution or difficulty of win
And I am very excited because I think I got elements of all of them.
*Sigh* I love writing openings. It’s the hammering out details of plot where I get bogged down.
It helps that Jay is bugged by inconsistencies in the novels he reads. I will be thinking out-loud about a change and then I (or he) will point-out a looming inconsistency. Then we’ll talk through how to bring it into alignment with the rules we’ve made up for this story’s world.
Granted, I’m interested in the game longer than he is, but even the minimal feedback I got last night when he was reading his snowmachine magazine was enough to get me past a couple different stucks that let me write today.
I hate writing openings! Mostly because I’m a seat-of-the-pants writer. I know who my characters are and what the basic arc of the story is, but because so many things happen/change between starting and ending, my first chapter usually ends up getting trashed and rewritten. My historical romance is the only one that didn’t happen with . . . and now that I think of it, it’s because it is really just focused on the things that you mentioned: introducing the main characters and hinting at the conflict to come.
Hmmm . . . maybe that’s why I’m having so much trouble with the opening of the second book in the trilogy. I’m trying too hard to jump right into the story–since it picks up just about right where the first one leaves off–instead of looking at it as a completely separate book and taking the time to introduce the characters who will have more of the spotlight in it.
Thanks for posting this–I needed it!